Security tightened across Sindh after Peshawar blast

After Monday’s deadly blast at a Police Lines mosque in Peshawar, Sindh police chief Ghulam Nabi Memon ordered a high alert throughout the province and directed that security measures should be tightened at mosques, Imambargahs and all other religious places.

Officials said Memon, voicing concern over the security situation, has ordered extra patrolling, stricter snap checking, and productive police picketing and blockades on entry and exit routes. He directed his subordinates throughout the province to make crackdowns on criminals successful after conducting recce, surveillance and advance intelligence collection in their respective areas.

Moreover, constant contacts should also be maintained with other law enforcement agencies, including inter-linking of ranges, districts and police stations, said the IGP. He also chaired a security meeting at his office and issued directives for adopting extraordinary steps to improve law and order by utilising the available resources and manpower.

“The police should fulfil their responsibilities while ensuring team work and take action against criminals and terrorists without any discrimination.” Memon directed the police to take solid steps, including visible police deployment in crime-infested areas and effective snap checking, to overcome crime and avert any possible terrorist activity.

He said steps should also be ensured to eliminate possible terrorist activities and organised crime by way of strengthening the advance intelligence collection system. Especially the Counter Terrorism Department should expand its intelligence gathering network and arrest criminal elements who might create some unrest in the province, he said.

“Any information with regard to terrorist activity should be followed without any delay ensuring all necessary security arrangements,” he stressed. The IGP said extraordinary security should be ensured to protect the life and property of citizens, while effective security steps must be adopted at mosques, Imambargahs, other places of worship, vital installations, important government and semi- government offices, and all other public places. He also invited comprehensive proposals for practical and effective restructuring of the Karachi police by removing bottlenecks in operations and investigation policing.

The meeting directed that sufficient force deployment at mosques, Imambarghs and other places o religious gatherings be ensured to guard against terrorism and maintain law and order. The police were further told that all activists of militants and sectarian groups as well as criminal elements should be kept under surveillance and a crackdown should be carried out from now on against such elements.